MP poll: BJP releases 5th list, drops Vijayvargiya's son

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released a fifth list of 92 candidates for the next month's MP assembly polls dropping sitting Indore-3 MLA Akash Vijayvargiya, son of the party stalwart Kailash Vijayvargiya who is in the fray from the Indore-1 segment.

The BJP has fielded Rakesh Golu Shukla from the Indore-3 constituency in place of Akash Vijayvargiya. Shukla is the cousin of Sanjay Shukla, the Congress legislator from Indore-1.

Kailash Vijayvargiya had said on October 16 that Akash had written to BJP president JP Nadda requesting not to consider him for the ticket this time as the party had fielded his father.

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's nephew Anup Mishra has also been denied a ticket – he was apparently vying for Gwalior South. MP ex-minister Narayan Singh Kushwaha has been nominated for the seat. Mishra had unsuccessfully contested the last state polls from the Bhitarwar constituency in Gwalior.

Twenty-nine MLAs, including ministers OPS Bhadoriya, Yashodhara Scindia, and Gaurishankar Bisen, have been dropped, while 37 lawmakers have again made to the party's latest list. Scindia has already shown her unwillingness to fight elections citing health reasons.

The ruling party has so far declared 228 out of 230 candidates for the forthcoming elections except for the Guna and Vidisha seats.

The latest list includes the names of 12 women candidates, including former state ministers Maya Singh and Archana Chitnis from the Gwalior East and Burhanpur assembly segments, respectively. Incumbent minister Usha Thakur is renominated from the Mhow seat.

The single phase polling for 230 seats will be held on November 17 and counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.

Among the other prominent candidates who featured on the fifth list are former state ministers Jayant Malaiya (75) and Surendra Patwa, nephew of MP ex-chief minister Sunderlal Patwa.

Malaiya lost to Congress' Rahul Singh Lodhi in the 2018 polls. In the 2020 bypoll necessitated by Lodhi's resignation from Congress and subsequent movement to BJP, Malaiya was denied a ticket. However, Lodhi lost the bypoll after joining the BJP.

Besides Malaiya, the saffron party has pitted sitting MLA Sitasaran Sharma (73) against his brother and Congress nominee Girija Shankar Sharma from Narmadapuram. Girija represented the constituency twice in 2003 and 2008 as a BJP MLA. He joined the Congress last month.

MP minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia, a loyalist of Union minister Jyotraditya Scindia, also made it to the list.

Surendra Patwa is fielded from Bhojpur in Raisen district and Sisodia is renominated from Bamori in Guna district.

State minister Gaurishanker Bisen is replaced with his daughter Mausam Bisen from the Balaghat constituency.

Former MP assembly speaker and powerful Brahmin Congress leader of Vindhya region late Sriniwas Tiwari's grandson Siddharth Tiwari, who joined the BJP just three days ago after parting ways with the Congress, has been nominated for Teonthar seat in Rewa district.